Someone said that you don't have to memorize the Yoon and Dakuten/Handakuten characters in Hiragana and Katakana. I don't know anything about these though so I'm pretty confused.

Should I just memorize them anyway? And does anyone have any tips on learning about the Yoon and Dakuten/Handakuten in Hiragana and Katakana? I'd really appreciate the help. Self studying is so confusing. x.X

Someone said that you don't have to memorize the Yoon and Dakuten/Handakuten characters in Hiragana and Katakana.

I think they probably meant it doesn't require any 'extra learning.' Which in a sense is true. For example, if you know all characters like 'ha hi hu he ho' become 'ba bi bu be bo' simply by adding the dakuten, it's not like you need to learn any 'new' characters or anything.

Edit: changed handakuten to dakuten as it should have been.

Last edited by Ongakuka on Sun 12.18.2011 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Basically the Chouonpu just lengthens the sound of a vowel for an "extra beat". Generally you only see it used with the katakana. In Hiragana you'd see either ああ or えい or おお or おう etc to length vowels.

The Youon is just adding an extra "ya", "yu", or "yo" sound to a single sound. So the sound only stays one "beat" long. So while きよう (skillful) would be 3 "beats" long, きょう would only be 2, the きょ and then the う to lengthen the "o" sound of the first きょ (kyo sound).

As the others have said, the dakuten ( ゛ ) just changes the "unvoiced" sounds to "voiced" sounds... so...

(And if the difference between writing those names confuses you... eg; Youon and Yōon, it's just different styles of romanization. Since the word in Japanese is actually written ようおん, we tend to write it in a more direct interpretation... "word processor romaji" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wāpuro_rōmaji Hopefully this answers most of your questions so far? )

Whether you say 'ka' or 'ga,' you're making the same position with your mouth to produce either sound. The 'ga' is just a softer version of 'ka.' That is essentially what the dakuten means: to make the sound a little bit softer.

(By the way I don't think anyone corrected me when I said 'handakuten' where I meant 'dakuten' before so I'll edit that myself )

'ha' and 'ba' is the same principle. Using a handakuten will make the sound only half way softer, so 'ha' becomes 'pa.' It is only used on the 'H' row as far as I can remember. Anyway you'll pick it up in no time!

Whether you say 'ka' or 'ga,' you're making the same position with your mouth to produce either sound. The 'ga' is just a softer version of 'ka.' That is essentially what the dakuten means: to make the sound a little bit softer.

(By the way I don't think anyone corrected me when I said 'handakuten' where I meant 'dakuten' before so I'll edit that myself )

'ha' and 'ba' is the same principle. Using a handakuten will make the sound only half way softer, so 'ha' becomes 'pa.' It is only used on the 'H' row as far as I can remember. Anyway you'll pick it up in no time!

Oh...my gosh. I am the most slowest person in the world. I kind of get it. :/ *Headdesk* Why am I so slow? ;w;